Harry Potter and Electra's Locket
by Alvera
Summary: When Dumbledore asks for Harry, Hermione, and Ron's help to find out who poisoned Minerva McGonagal none of them realise just how many secrets their transfiguration teacher was hiding. BM
1. Electra's Locket

Harry Potter and Electra's Locket - Part 1  
  
By Freddie  
  
Summery  
  
When Dumbledore asks for Harry, Hermione, and Ron's help to find out who poisoned Minerva McGonagal none of them realise just how many secrets their transfiguration teacher was hiding. And as they get closer to finding who poisoned her, Hermione discovers some home truths that she'd rather not know.  
  
Disclaimer  
  
Tragically I don't own any of the characters or situations in this story, except for the story about the Locket and therefore Electra  
  
Harry was sitting at his desk in his office at the ministry reading a memo from Hermione. He was 19 and had left Hogwarts 2 years ago. He worked in the Department of Mysteries along with Hermione and Ron. The memo was nothing interesting. He filed it under `Boring Memo's from Hermione about Ministry Politics', the fullest section in the filing cabinet. He glanced at his watch. Six o'clock in the morning. Not much point in going to bed now. He had got used to having very little sleep for days on end. Suddenly he realised that there was an owl tapping frantically on the window. He opened the window and the owl flew in and sat on his desk. He didn't recognise the owl but when he opened the letter it was written on Hogwarts paper.  
  
Harry,  
  
We have a big problem here at Hogwarts and need your help. I have already cleared it with your boss. Come as soon as possible. I have also asked Ron and Hermione to come. You could be here for some time and it could be dangerous.  
  
Yours truly,  
  
Albus Dumbledore  
  
Harry was just taking in what it said when Hermione burst into his office.  
  
"Have you got an owl from Dumbledore?" She asked. Harry nodded as Ron also ran in.  
  
"Do you think it's something to do with `You-Know-Who?'" She asked.  
  
Harry shrugged, "I don't know." He replied, "Dumbledore doesn't say anything about what's wrong in my letter."  
  
"Nor mine" Ron said.  
  
"Well there's only one way to find out" Hermione said.  
  
"How?" Ron asked.  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes in despair. "Go and find out of course"  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking through the corridors to Dumbledore's office when a thought occurred to Harry.  
  
"It's a bit quiet isn't it?" He asked.  
  
"Of course it is." Ron said, "It's the summer holidays"  
  
"Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that"  
  
"Do you think this has got something to do with McGonagal being poisoned?" Hermione asked. Harry and Ron stopped in their tracks.  
  
"What?!?!" They asked in unison.  
  
"Don't you know?" Hermione asked, "McGonagal collapsed in the middle of the last feast of term. Snape said it was poison in her drink."  
  
Harry's mouth dropped open, "Is she, is she dead?"  
  
"No, just in a coma. But apparently she could die. It's all been kept very hush-hush"  
  
"Well how do you know?" Ron asked.  
  
"Carmencita told me" Carmencita was the department gossip and the bane of security's life. She couldn't keep anything secret. Rumour was that she was going to be transferred to misuse of muggle artefacts department where she could do less damage.  
  
Hermione started walking again and Ron and Harry followed. A few minutes later Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived at the tower where Dumbledore's office was. He was standing outside and greeted them.  
  
"Hello Harry, Hermione, Ron" He looked worried and glanced round the empty corridor. "We need to talk in my office" He said, leading them into his office. "No doubt you've heard about the attack on Minerva" Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded. They expected him to ask them how they knew, or to tell them more about it, but he did neither of these things. Instead he picked up a locket from his desk, which looked like it was hundreds of years old. "Do any of you know what this is?" He asked. Harry heard Hermione gasp beside him. He looked at her.  
  
"May I have a look at it?" She asked.  
  
"Of course" Dumbledore replied. Hermione took the locket and looked at it, turning it over very gently, and tried to open it. She failed to open it. She looked up and a look of shock was on her face.  
  
"This is Electra's Locket" She said. 


	2. McGonagals Office

Harry Potter and Electra's Locket - Part 2  
  
By Freddie  
  
"Indeed," Dumbledore replied, "It is." He turned to Ron and Harry, "Have you ever heard the story of Electra's Locket?" Harry and Ron shook their heads.  
  
"Well, A long time ago, about five thousand years to be precise, witches and wizards kept well clear of muggles. To think of a witch and a muggle falling in love was just, well, unthinkable. One woman changed that. A witch called Electra fell in love with a muggle called Gregorio. She was ordered to be put to death. But before she was killed, she locked her powers into this locket. The locket was given to her sister who couldn't open it. But the prophecy said that only the first born daughter could open it. The sister had a son. So he couldn't open it. He had a daughter, who tried to open it but failed. And so on and so forth until we come to Minerva. The prophecy said that if you ever need help open the locket and Electra's power will come, or something like that. But it also said that if the last first born daughter dies then the powers will be lost forever."  
  
"So if Professor McGonagal dies then the powers are lost forever?" Hermione asked.  
  
"How do you figure that out?" Ron asked  
  
"Well, I don't think that she has any children. Does she?" Hermione asked Dumbledore. Dumbledore didn't reply to the question. Instead he said.  
  
"The day before she was poisoned, Minerva told me that she thought that she was getting close to solving the problem of how to open the locket."  
  
"Do you think Voldemort poisoned her because she was getting too close to solving it?" Harry asked.  
  
"I don't know" Dumbledore replied honestly, "That's what I was hoping you could find out. Knowing Minerva, she probably made some note of what she had found out about the locket. I was hoping that you could find out why Minerva was poisoned and how to open the locket."  
  
Hermione's face was full of grim determination.  
  
"We'll do our best," She said.  
  
"Thank you" Dumbledore said, "You will have access to Minerva's office etc. Do you know where it is?"  
  
"No" Harry said.  
  
"Well, you know where the Gryffindor common room is don't you?"  
  
"Yes" Ron said.  
  
"Well, from there, if you go left, right, left, left, right, straight ahead, right, left, right, right..." Dumbledore paused, "It'll be easier for me to show you"  
  
"So, where do we start?" Ron asked. Hermione thought about this for a moment.  
  
"Right," She said, "Ron, you start with the desk, Harry, the cabinet"  
  
"What are you going to do?" Harry asked.  
  
"I am going to look for a passage to her quarters."  
  
"Her What?" Ron asked.  
  
"I take it you still haven't read Hogwarts a History"  
  
"No, why?"  
  
"Teachers have their own quarters, connected by secret passages to their offices" Ron started examining the desk, Harry started examining the cabinet and Hermione started examining the bookcase.  
  
"Oh," She moaned after about 20 minutes, "This is ridiculous. Have you two found anything?"  
  
"Not a sausage" Harry said.  
  
"But we're not looking for sausages" Ron said.  
  
"It's a muggle expression" Harry explained.  
  
"What about you Ron?" Hermione asked.  
  
"No luck"  
  
"I cannot find a book which looks out of place." Suddenly something caught her eye, "Ha" She said.  
  
"`Ha' what?" Ron asked.  
  
"Ha, I think I've found how to open the bookcase"  
  
"Well don't just stand there, do it"  
  
Hermione pulled one of the books out of the bookcase and replaced it. The bookcase swung away from the wall, revealing a dark passage.  
  
"Lumos" Hermione said and walked into the passage, her wand lighting the way.  
  
"There must be hundreds of these passages which Fred and George never found" Ron said.  
  
"That's because you can only get to them through the teachers offices" Hermione replied. After walking a few paces they found a door, which opened to reveal a room, which was the complete opposite of McGonagal's office. Whilst her office had been tidy, a place for everything and everything in it's place, this room was a tip.  
  
"Ron, Hermione," Harry said, "You keep looking, see if you can find anything else. I'll check here" Hermione nodded  
  
"Ok" She said, "Come on Ron" They found a room which seemed to be her bedroom. There was an emerald green robe lying on the bed and her trunk was lying open near a wall. Suddenly they heard Harry call.  
  
"Hermione," He shouted, "Ron" They ran to the room where they had left him. He was looking at a bowl of silvery liquid, or it may have been gas, which had shapes moving in it.  
  
"Pensive" Hermione breathed. 


	3. Inside The Pensive

1 Harry Potter and Electra's Locket – Part 3  
  
By Freddie  
  
  
  
They looked at each other.  
  
"Shall we?" Harry asked.  
  
"Well, it might help us notice something" Hermione said.  
  
"Yeah." Ron added, "It obviously helped McGonagall" Harry tapped his wand on the pensive and found himself in the school library. Hermione and Ron appeared next to him. Harry looked around. The library was almost empty.  
  
"Where's Madame Pince?" Hermione asked. Harry shrugged.  
  
"Maybe she's at lunch" He suggested. Suddenly he noticed a young girl, no older than 16, sitting at a desk, hunched over a book. Her black hair was tightly wrapped in a bun and she was wearing glasses. Suddenly, Harry realised who it was.  
  
"McGonagall" He exclaimed. All of a sudden, they heard a drawling voice, one which Harry remembered (How could he forget) from his second year.  
  
"Well if it isn't little Minerva McGonagall" Harry, Ron and Hermione swirled around. Tom Riddle was standing in the doorway. "Not still working on your Transfiguration homework. Trying to beat your own record of 20 scrolls of parchment are you?"  
  
"Go away Riddle" She replied coldly.  
  
"Why should I?" He asked, walking over to her, "Oh, of course. Still trying to open your stupid locket are you?"  
  
"What's it to you?" She asked.  
  
"You'll never do it." He taunted, "You're not clever enough. You're no better than the other people who've tried. You'll fail, just as they did. That locket has remained closed for five thousand years. Why should you manage? You're no different." But McGonagall calmly picked up her books.  
  
"Much as I enjoy our little chats," She said as she headed for the door, "I've got better things to do with my time than waste it listening to you. Goodbye"  
  
"Was that Tom Riddle?" Hermione asked Harry, who nodded, "As in 'You-know- who?"  
  
"Yeah"  
  
Suddenly the pensive changed to a Gryffindor dormitory. Two girls were sitting on one of the beds looking at a book while the third, 16 year old McGonagall, was pacing the room.  
  
"I HATE him, I HATE him, I HATE him. He's slimy and greasy and horrible and nasty and I HATE him"  
  
One of the girls sitting on the bed asked the other, "Do you ever get the impression that Min doesn't like Riddle?"  
  
"No Ros," The other girl replied sarcastically, "Where on earth did you get that impression from?" They both giggled and the pensive changed again.  
  
This time it was in the Three Broomsticks. McGonagall was sitting at the bar watching the door. She kept glancing up at the clock as though she was waiting for someone. She looked a lot older, about early 20's. Suddenly a man walked over to her. The look on her face told them that she was thinking something along the lines of 'Oh God'  
  
"Hello Minerva" Riddle said.  
  
"Hello Tom" She replied frostily.  
  
"Date stood you up?" He asked. McGonagall didn't reply. She just glanced up at the clock and gulped down her drink.  
  
"If you'll excuse me I'm just leaving" She said.  
  
"Well," He said, "Why don't I give you a lift?" McGonagall eyed him suspiciously.  
  
"Ok," She said, "Thank you."  
  
Once more the pensive changed, but this time it was only a few minutes later, to when Riddle and McGonagall had arrived at her house.  
  
"Do you want to come in?" She asked.  
  
"Ok, Yeah" For the next fifteen minutes they asked each other how they were, what they were doing, nothing interesting. Harry was just about to suggest that maybe it would be a better idea for them to look for some notes about the locket when suddenly something happened. They kissed. McGonagall and Riddle kissed.  
  
Yet again the pensive changed. McGonagall was in tears and Rosmerta was trying to make sense of what she was saying.  
  
"Minerva," She said, "What's wrong?"  
  
"I can't believe it; I'm such an idiot"  
  
Rosmerta took a deep breath and tried again, "What can't you believe? Why are you an idiot?"  
  
"Riddle" McGonagall replied. Rosmerta looked slightly surprised.  
  
"Riddle? What's Riddle got to do with anything?"  
  
"I, I slept with him."  
  
"What!?!"  
  
"I slept with Riddle" 


	4. The Power of Emotion Rules the World

1 Harry Potter and Electra's Locket – Part 4  
  
By Freddie  
  
Harry, who had at the time been looking around him at the room, spun around so quickly that he tripped. The pensive melted away and they somehow found themselves back in McGonagall's main office.  
  
"Okay" Ron said, still reeling from the revelation that their old Transfiguration teacher slept with the most evil wizard of all time, "That was unexpected"  
  
"You can say that again" Hermione said.  
  
"Okay, that was unexpected"  
  
"Ha-Ha-Di-Ha-Ha" Hermione replied sarcastically.  
  
"So what connects those five scenes?" Harry asked.  
  
"Riddle" Hermione replied, "He was in all the scenes except two and then they were about him"  
  
"Yeah" Ron said, "You're right"  
  
"The thing that I don't understand" Harry said, "Is what that has to do with the Locket?"  
  
"I don't know" Hermione replied  
  
"And," Ron said, "If she hated him so much, why sleep with him?"  
  
"Maybe" Harry said, "She really loved him and was pretending to hate him"  
  
"But" Hermione said, "If she did really love him why did she regret it?"  
  
"True" Harry replied. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. They glanced at each other.  
  
"Come in" Hermione said. A woman who looked about thirty came in. She had long brown hair and green eyes.  
  
"Sorry," She said, "But I couldn't help overhearing. What makes you think that who-ever you're talking about couldn't hate and love this man."  
  
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.  
  
"Well, hate and love are actually very similar. They're both very powerful emotions."  
  
"I don't understand what you mean," Ron said  
  
"Well, it's like, is it easier to turn a white piece of paper into a black piece of paper or a pile of white pieces of paper?"  
  
"A black piece of paper" Hermione replied.  
  
"Exactly. It's easier to turn love into hate than into dislike or like because they are both so powerful. Remember 'The Power of Emotion Rules the World'" With that she walked out.  
  
"Who was that?" Harry asked.  
  
"I don't know," Hermione said, "Probably the next defence teacher. Do you think that we should watch the rest of the pensive?"  
  
"Yeah, Ok" They walked back into the room with the pensive (goodness knows why it decided to dump them in the main office but anyway). They watched the scenes they had already seen, looking out for small details that could be useful. Eventually they got to the bit that they had stopped at.  
  
"I slept with Riddle" McGonagall said.  
  
"You what? When?" Rosmerta stammered, amazed.  
  
"About a month ago, But that's not the worst part of it" McGonagall said,  
  
"What is?"  
  
"I'm Pregnant" 


	5. As one Problem is solved...

1 Harry Potter and Electra's Locket – Part 5  
  
By Freddie  
  
"You're, you're, you're pregnant?" Rosmerta stammered. McGonagall nodded, "Oh Min," She said, "I don't know what to say. What are you going to do?"  
  
"I don't know. I suppose I'll just have to stay at work as long as I can and then have the baby adopted. I couldn't look after a baby alone, I'm too young" She began crying yet again. Rosmerta put an arm round her.  
  
"Hey, It's ok, you'll be fine. You've got me, and Molly"  
  
"Molly'd never understand. You know what she's like. She'd think that I should keep the baby, she's argue that she's managed well enough looking after Bill, but she's got Arthur, it's not the same" This time it was Ron's turn to be the most shocked.  
  
"McGonagall knew my mum?" He asked. Harry shrugged, Hermione seemed too engrossed in watching what was going on around her. The scene was changing. It was now a hospital. McGonagall was in bed holding a baby, a younger Dumbledore was sitting by her bed. He'd obviously just come in.  
  
"Have you told Riddle?" He asked her.  
  
"No, no way is he having anything to do with this baby" McGonagall replied.  
  
"The question is, are you?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"I don't know Albus," She replied, "He's my baby, but I don't know if I could put him through living in the wizarding world. Not only would he be the child of a single mother, but he'd be a muggle. I don't think I could put him through that"  
  
"So the adoption's going ahead?"  
  
"Yeah"  
  
"Who would have thought it? The son of two of the most powerful wizarding families a squib"  
  
"Yeah"  
  
"What about the locket, are you going to pass that secret on to him?"  
  
"I don't know. Part of me says that I shouldn't lumber a baby with a secret that strong, but another part of me says that I haven't been able to crack it in all the time I've been trying, so why should I manage when I'm older?"  
  
"Mmmm" Dumbledore mused, "I think that that is a decision that you should make" Hermione was looking round the room, examining every surface that she could see. Harry thought he heard her gasp slightly, but then he decided that he must have imagined it. When they left the pensive, Hermione rushed off, claiming to have some research to do, but not telling them what she was researching. This left Harry and Ron to continue searching the room with the pensive in, in the vain hope of finding anything useful. They then decided to try and attack the locket with a hammer and chisel but, despite being over five thousand years old, they didn't even scratch it. They were just about to take the locket outside to see if they could find any twenty ton blocks to drop onto it, when Hermione came in. Actually, bad choice of words there. Saying that Hermione came in, implies that she walked in, calmly and coolly, when in fact she ran in, almost knocking the door off it's hinges, out of breath and excited.  
  
"Give me the locket" She told Harry, "I think that I know how to open it" 


	6. ...Another presents itself

1 Harry Potter and Electra's Locket – Part 6  
  
By Freddie  
  
Harry handed Hermione the locket.  
  
"OK" She said, "The locket-" But she got no further, because they felt themselves jerked out of the office. They hadn't realised it, but the rug that they were standing on was a portakey, put there by Voldemort to trap them. Seconds later, they found themselves standing in the middle of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. It was dark and as their eyes got adjusted to the light they realised that the warehouse wasn't quite abandoned. Twelve deatheaters emerged from the shadows, their wands raised. Harry, Ron and Hermione were surrounded. Hermione gripped the locket, knowing that it was their only hope. Voldemort stepped out of the shadows, his wand pointed straight at Harry and spoke.  
  
"So, the great Harry Potter," He said, "We meet again; And this time, there is no escape"  
  
"NO!" Hermione yelled, running in between Harry and Voldemort.  
  
"Out of my way, little girl."  
  
"Never." She hissed, a dangerous fire in her eyes.  
  
"Very well then" He replied, "it is of little consequence. I shall just kill you first"  
  
"Go on then," She challenged, "Kill your Granddaughter" 


End file.
